Sunday, October 11, 2015

When Thou Art At Home, Do As They Do At Home



Ever since I found a pin on Pinterest that another blogger shared, of a mason jar craft that was simply gluing some pretty doilies onto the jar and placing an LED tea light inside, I have been buying mason jars and paints by the case. I even have my youngest daughter coming up with ideas on a daily basis for what to do with all of our jars and how to make them pretty!







We went on a shopping spree for art supplies mainly paints, brushes, sponges,, and oh yeah, LOTS of glitter! Genevive had a few spools of glitter ribbon left from another project so, we made a totally posh night light for her bedroom. (The total girly jar on the far right with the sparkly ribbon!) 

We are still testing out different kinds of paints, in search of doilies at a reasonable price, and are currently in the market for different types of LED tea lights, frosted spray paint, glow in the dark spray paint, and anything else that will help us make tons of one of a kind jars! (Please leave comments or find me on Twitter or Instagram, where I most often spend my time if you have any ideas!!)

We try to teach our children how to be self sufficient and sustainable and we enjoy doing activities that don't require a screen of any kind. The kids enjoy craft nights, we have DIY sleepover parties, invite neighborhood kids over to learn to make anything from cheese to granola to bubble gum to their very own and very chic, bedroom decorations. I'm a sucker for saving money and learning and that time consuming social media network, Pinterest! So, I have lists upon lists of projects I am anxious to try with the little ones and on my own. I hope to get to a point where we make at least 50% of our own snack foods, convenience foods, beauty, bath, and body products, home decor, and even flashlights. (Yes, we are just a tad bit away from our goal but I must admit, even though we have such a fun time making our ow cheese, I will buy some cheese at the store. But, cheddar and mozzarella are almost all homemade.) 



Genevive helped to make this adorable butter jar that we painted with chalkboard paint and she used chalkboard markers to make these fancy letters. It was fairly easy to get the chalkboard paint to look even after a few coats and a sponge brush and the markers worked quite well! (We even made some cute, chalkboard planters that we baked in the oven for about 30 minutes.) But... after our first butter churning, (ok, we don't churn it, we shake it very vigorously.), the chalkboard marker started to rub off and ended up more on us then the jar. I am guessing maybe this was due to a combination of not waiting long enough for this to dry, condensation, temperature, and repeated rubbing on the jar. While I wish so much that there was a way to erase the chalkboard markers sometimes, it was a fun project and we learned from it. The chalkboard markers did last and are still as fresh looking as the day we did the planters, and chalkboard markers are just way to addicting to just trade in for chalk!! (So, yeah we'll stick with these babies!) 

We would be delighted to hear from you! We need suggestions for good paints, the best nail files or sandpaper to file the jars down before and after paint, erasable chalk markers?? Maybe an eraser designed just for chalkboard markers!? If you have a blog post, a pin, anything you would like to share about your own projects or ideas for some mason jar projects, please leave your links! 

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